The Houston Texans won their season finale today 14-6 over the Cleveland Browns. They end the season 6-10, which is four victories better than last year. I can’t say it was a very good season. It started going down hill once their running back Domanick Davis was injured in the pre-season and that’s pretty early to start going down hill. Their first round draft pick, Mario Williams, was pretty ineffective this season, while the two people they passed on in the draft, Reggie Bush and Vince Young, did well on their new teams. I can only hope that Williams will be good in the long run. I think the Texans need to look to the running back position and the defensive back position next year. I think Carr is a solid quarterback, he just needs a good running game to release the pressure. Here’s to next year.
…against Florida teams. They are 0-6 against non-Florida teams, but that’s besides the point. Unfortunately, they didn’t give tickets out to any of the games at work this week. I was hoping to win tickets to the Texans–Jaguars game since it was only about an hour and a half drive away up in Jacksonville. Texans were up early and held strong winning 13-10, despite missing two field goals. This was their first road win since December 2004.
I’m stunned. The Houston Texans actually pulled out a win and this season they are 2-0 against Florida teams. Unfortunately they are 0-4 against non-Florida teams. Today they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-7 in the best offensive showing from Houston to date. Carr has been looking impressive and it looks like they finally have a running back that can pick up some yards in Wali Lundy. Now if Mario Williams can just start energizing the defense. The Texans have a long way to go, but it’s always nice to have a win.
It’s been a while since I’ve written, so I thought I would do a “month in review”. For the most part September was pretty much another ordinary month in the French household.
After the Knight of the Week event, the Longhorns ended up loosing to Ohio State. The defense just looked terrible. I thought Colt McCoy still looked good under the circumstances, for a red shirt freshman. We have him for four more years and he can only get better. After the loss to Ohio State, the Longhorns went on to beat Rice, Iowa State, and Sam Houston State. If they can continue to win out the Big XII, they can still be in the hunt for a BCS bid and a chance at the National Championship once again. But first they have to beat Oklahoma, which is next week.
On the subject of sports, it was a good and bad day for Houston sports. Today the Astros lost the last game of their regular season which puts them out of the playoffs this year. It was an amazing last year getting to the World Series and all, but it wasn’t meant to be this year. On the good side, the Texans finally won. They beat the Miami Dolphins 17-15, in a very exciting game. They are now 1-3, which isn’t a great start to the year. Their number one pick in the draft, Mario Williams, got his first sack in the game. So far, the Texans have looked terrible. I’m hoping that they can turn it around, but I’m not holding my breath.
On the 8th, I went in for a “touch up” on my Lasik. My left eye wasn’t 20-20, so they offered another session. It was really easy, much easier than the first time. Apparently the “flap” that they cut in your eye doesn’t heal in six months. So, they reopened the flap and re-lasered the eye. Immediately after the surgery I was seeing much better. It’s amazing.
On the 9th, we went and witnessed our first shuttle take off. We discovered that the place the shuttle takes off from is only about twenty minutes from our house. We just parked on the side of the road and walked up to the bridge that goes out to the Kennedy Space Center. Someone had their radio tuned into the countdown and when it reached zero, there was a brilliant light and the shuttle was lifted into the sky. It was amazing and can only suggest that if you haven’t seen it you should come to Florida to try and see the shuttle take off. Currently the next shuttle is schedule to go off at night. We are thinking of making a trek out for that one as well.
In other news Jennifer was named Abby’s “room mom”. So, she helps out and coordinates parties for the class. This week she went up for Apple Math and Science Day. They had four different stations and Jennifer manned the “less than or greater than an apple” station. She would name an object and then the kids would have to say whether it weighed greater than or less than an apple.
Abby’s doing really good in school. She got her first report card this past week. She got all “Satisfactory” grades. They don’t start getting letter grades until second grade.
A new football era for myself has begun. The Ricky Williams era has ended and it’s the beginning of the Derek Johnson era and with the NFL Draft yesterday, my new team was revealed. As the 15th pick in the first round Derek Johnson went to the Kansas City Chiefs, which will be my new football team. Here’s some back history, for those who don’t know. My original football team was the Houston Oilers, but when they left for Tennessee that left me with no team. I went back to my alma mater, Texas, and an up and coming star, Ricky Williams, who was on the verge of graduating. I followed him from Texas to New Orleans and finally to Miami, where he quit last year. So, last year I went back to Texas to follow another up and coming star. I actually had two choices: Cedric Benson or Derek Johnson. I chose Johnson for a couple of reasons. I’ve been watching him for a while as a great linebacker. Even as a freshman I remember him being in attacking every play. At Texas he wore #11 which was Major Applewhite’s and Ricky Williams’s numbers while they were at Texas. Finally, I didn’t want to follow another running back. So, this brings us to the Kansas City Chiefs. Go Chiefs!
Hopefully everyone saw the Madden NFL Next Gen commercial during the draft. If you didn’t, you can find it at this link.
What is Ricky Williams thinking? I figured I had several more years as a Dolphins fan before I would be moving on to another player from the University of Texas. However, Ricky dropped a bombshell on the NFL today by announcing his retirement. As a result, I am once again an NFL team free agent. For those of you who do not know the reason behind me being a Miami Dolphins fan, the only reason is Ricky Williams. Originally, I was a Houston Oilers fan. I grew up in Houston and we would go to games in the Astrodome back in the “Love ‘Ya Blue” days of Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini. Well, in 1997 the Oilers picked up shop and moved to Tennessee to eventually become the Titans. From that point I became an NFL team free agent. I went back to my University of Texas roots and followed a player up from the team to start their NFL career. It happened that that player was Ricky Williams. I had season tickets the year he broke the single season college rushing record and saw him break it on the last game of the season against Texas A&M. The idea was that I would follow a UT alumni for their NFL career and then, when they retired, I would go back to UT and follow another kid as they left UT and entered the NFL draft. To my surprise that is going to start all over again today only five short years since it began with Ricky Williams. So, for this year I will have no NFL team that I will root for. I will be watching UT games with more attention trying to pick out the player I will follow next. I contemplated becoming a Detroit Lions fan and following Roy Williams who just graduated last year, but I like taking a year off. Today’s picture is from a preseason game that I went to in Jacksonville to see the Dolphins play.
On family related news, Aunt Marci made into town fine. We picked her up from the airport today and I showed her where I worked. She was impressed with Tiburon’s building. She stated that it must be a fun place to work.
The water extraction guys came back to take a look at how well the floor and walls are drying. They are still a little damp and the fans are still here blowing away. The Chinese water torture continues.
August was full of activity since I had extra time off from work since Madden shipped last month. Emily has started to stand up when holding on to something. She tries to walk, but usually stumbles. Abby and Emily have started playing together, but Abby usually plays too rough.
On August 2nd we joined the Central Florida YMCA in Winter Park in an attempt to get into shape and so Abby could take swim lessons. She loves going to the pool and we thought it would be a good idea to teach her to swim.
On August 8th George & Heather Galindo came to visit and we all went to Miami to see the Miami Dolphins vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers pre-season football game. Jennifer’s mother flew over to stay with Abby and Emily over night. The following Monday, George, Heather, and I went down to Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during their training camp.
On August 12th, Madden 2004 was released. So far sales have been doing good. I’ve heard that sales are up from last year.
On August 15th, I won tickets from work to go see the Miami Dolphins vs. Jacksonville Jaguares. Becuase we couldn’t fine anyone on such short notice, I went to the game myself.
August 19th was Abby’s first day of pre-school. She was very happy to go and has enjoyed going. She is going to pre-school at our church, First United Methodist of Winter Park. She goes two days a week for 3 hours. She really enjoys it and can’t wait to go again.
On August 25th Jennifer, Abby, and I went to Blizzard Beach, a water park at Disney. We floated down a river in a innertube, went down water slides. Abby loved every minute of it. She keeps asking to go back to “Mickey’s Water”.
Frenchville 
